Liner



May 9, 1933. R. R. HUNT 1,908,425

LINER Filed March 17, 1930 5 Sheets-Shet l R. R. HUNT May 9, 1933.

LINER Filed March 17, 1950 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 R. R. HUNT May 9, 1933.

LINER Filed March 17, 1950 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 llllHH 34 Patented May 9, 1933 NETEV, ST

T E S RAY R. HUNT, OF MISHAWAKA, INDIANA \VOOLEN MANUFACTURING COMPANY, 013 INDIANA LIN ER Application filed March 17, 1930. Serial No. 436,549.

5 dition necessitating protection againstcontact with other layers thereof or with other materials which might adhere to or impair the finished surface thereof, and this invention has reference more particularly to the 19 construction of a ribbon or belt suitable for this purpose and to the method of and apparatus for handling and protecting such material.

In various lines of manufacture it is neces- 15 sary or desirable to prepare and use materials in sheet form while in a condition in which contact with adjoining layers thereof will injure the material, and if such sheet material is not used as it is made and has to be accumulated or transferred from one place to another, considerable difficulty is experienced in collecting it so that it may be. conveniently handled and transferred from place to place without damage or injury.

This is'particularly true in the manufacture of rubber goods'such as footwear wherein large quantities of calendered rubbercomposition are required to be cut up into pieces for subsequent use in the manufacture of 30 the goods. Heretofore, it has been the practice to employ frames having fabric or other material stretched between the ends and sides thereof and forming a shallow recessed area within the frame to receive the sheet rubber which is cut into relatively short lengths as it comes from the calender and each such short length placed in a separate frame, the frames with lengths of sheet rubber thereon being arranged .one above another in stacks and transported to the place or places where the sheet rubber is to be used. This not only entails considerable labor in cutting the rubber into the relatively short lengths and handling the frames but there is a substantial loss at the ends due to shrinkage with uneven thickening, and wastage in cutting these lengths of rubber into the various sizes and shapes F0 required in the manufacture of the goods. J

This wastage is particularly pronounced in calendering rubber with engraved rolls as the pattern or blanks at the ends are deformed by the shrinkage and have to be discarded. Moreover, in warm weatheror when rich stock isbeing used, the surface of 4 the rubber is frequently impaired by printing of the texture of the fabric of the frame thereon. I With my invention I have provided an improved separator for holding superposed layers of rubber composition out of contact with one another. and which may be readily constructed in the form-of a long ribbon oi' belt capable of accommodating a; correspondingly long length of the rubber, composition. Moreover, this ribbon orbelt, when constructed in accordance with my invention may be wound, together withthe length of rubber composition, in a rollfso that it forms acompact bundle with the rub ber safely stored therein and protected against injury. Furthermore, I; have also provided an apparatus whereby the separas tor ribbon or belt may be conveniently fed to and from a reel upon which therubber is wound and which saidapparatus is movable as aunit from place toplace so that a supply of rubber may be collected thereon from-the calender, transported to the place of useand supplied therefrom as required.- An apparatus of this character in a size and form which isreadily'portable from place to placearound a plant will; accommodate a strip of calendered rubber sevenhundred or more feet in length andnot only saves a large amount of wastage heretoforeex perienced in cutting-the rubber into the'various: sizes and shapesrequired in-the manufacture of rubberfgoods', but also consider able loss of time andlabor in I calendered rubber into relatively short lengths and i handling the frames and atthe same time affords a protective carrier'and covering which insures the'rubber reaching the place. of use in perfect condition.

The principal objects of my invention are to protect sheets of uncured rubber, com position and other, materials in animproved manner; to avoid thenecessityofcutting such materials, into the relatively short cutting the -TE'N orrica 1 ass enon 'IQ MISHAWAKA RUBBER, .A'Np. or arrsrrawnna, INDIANA, a ooaronarron.

lengths required with the protecting means heretofore employed; to avoid the shrinking and uneven thickening which occurred with such short lengths; to permit long lengths of uncured calendered rubber composition to be accumulated and transferred from the calender to the place of use; to'avoid the wastage heretofore experienced in cutting calendered rubber into the pieces required for manufacture of rubber goods such as footwear; to provide an improved protector and support for sheets of calendered rubber and other tacky materials; to construct the protector so that it may be made readily, and at a comparatively low cost and in any desired lengths and wound in a roll; to provide an apparatus for conveniently winding and unwinding the protective ribbon or belt to accumulate a supply of calendered rubher or other material thereon and to discharge the rubber or other material therefrom; to construct the apparatus as a portable unit so that it may be readily transported fromplace to place to receive and deliver the material at different places; to provide a convenient mechanism under the control of the operator for regulating the supply of material from the apparatus; and in general to provide an improved method of protecting and handling lengths of uncured calendered rubber and other materials and also a construction of protector ribbon or belt of a desirable character which may be used repeatedly for temporarily storing lengths of calendered rubber or other materials in aprotected manner and also a simple winding and unwinding apparatus whereby the protlector ribbon or belt may be conveniently use On. the drawings: I

Fig. 1 is a transverse section of the winding ribbon or separator and shows a, fragmentary portion thereof in perspective;

Fig. 2 is a side view of the frame or carriage on which the ribbon or separator is wound'y. Fig. 3 is a front view of the frame or carriagewith upper portions thereof in sec-. tions; I, e

Fig. 4 is a reduced sectional view of the frame orcarriage taken substantially on the line 4: 1 of Fig. 3 andshowsthe ribbon or separator on the reels'and also one form of mechanism for operating the reels to feed thelrubber or other material from the lower e r a Fig. '5 is a top view, partly in section,-0f the mechanism shown in Fig.1 'fori feeding the material from the lower roll; r

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary sectional view on the line '66 of Fig. 3 showing details of the construction of the reels;

Fig. 7 is an enlarged detail view partly in section, f the brake mechanism employed in connection with the reel, and r Fig. 8 is a side View of the upper portion of the frame or carriage showing a modified form of mechanism for operating the reels to feed the material from the lower roll.

Referring to the drawings, and particularly to Fig. l which shows the form of ribbon or belt whichI prefer to use as a separator and protector for uncured calendered rubber composition, the reference numeral 10 indicates the body or stiffening element of the ribbon or belt which is of heavy paper or cardboard and has a facing 11 of fabric adhesively secured on each side thereof. A. strip 12 of material is secured along each edge of this laminated cardboard and fabric ribbonor belt to form a wide shallow channel or. recess 13 (see Fig. 3) on the surface of the ribbon or belt and between the strips 12. to accommodate the length of calendered rubber, and these strips 12 also serve as spacers to hold each succeeding layer of the ribbon or belt out of contact with the rubber composition in the channel 13 of the preceding layer of the ribbon or belt. These strips or spacers 12 are preferably madeof rubber composition and rag stock or fibre calendered to gauge and adhesively secured to the edge of the ribbon or belt, the thickness of said strips being determined by the spacing which is found necessary between successive layers of the ribbon or belt to adequately protect the material wound therebetween.

In practice I have used a ribbon or tape 39 inches in width overall with a body or stiffening element 10 of #045 plain chip board, No. 4 finish with a facing 11 of No. 360 sheeting cemented on each side thereof and with raised edges or spacers 12 about one-eighth of an inch thick and three-quarters of an inch in width. This has been found to afford a durable and entirely satisfactory construction of ribbon or belt for handling calendered rubber composition.

The chip board is readily obtainable and at a comparatively low cost in any desired lengths and affords adequate stiffening or body for the belt which is reinforced to withstand pulling and winding strains by the layers 11 of fabric which provide a. satisfactory surface upon which to wind the tacky calendered rubber. Moreover, the use of the spacing strips 12 is not only a convenient way of providing the necessary channelor recess 13 in which to locate the rubber composition or other material but these stripsl2 also further reinforce the belt or ribbon and particularly against wear and tear along the edges.

The strips 12. may, of course, be arranged partly on one side and partly on the other side of the belt or ribbon or they may even be separate therefrom and fed between successive convolutions of the belt or ribbon as the latter is wound so as to insure the desired spacing therebet-ween, but I preferto use a form of belt orribbon such as above described. This ribbon or belt may be made and used in any desired lengths, depending upon the facilities for winding. and handling same, a convenient portable unit such as I have describedhereinafter being capable ofaccommodating a belt or ribbon of 700 feet or more in length which accomplishes a great saving in time and labor and avoids the wastage which has been experienced heretofore in cutting calendered rubber composition in short lengths and handling it in frames.

The belt or ribbon may be utilized in any convenient manner or handled with anydesired form of apparatus for loading with calendered rubber or other-material, trans porting from place to place and feeding the rubber or other material therefrom, .butl prefer to employ a unit suchas hereinafter described having reels to andfrom which the ribbon on belt is transferred in the feedingof the calendered rubber or other material onto the ribbon or belt and remov al of the material therefrom or in other words the loading and unloading operations, and this apparatus is preferably portable so that it may be readily moved to the place of loading and operated to wind the ribbon from one reel onto the other so as to receive a length of the calendered rubber or other materialthereon, then transferred to the place where thematerial is to: be used and operated to wind the ribbon or beltback on the original reel while the material is being removed therefrom.

This portable unit-,as 'shownin Figs. 2'to 7. inclusive consists of a reel supporting frame with the reels 15 and 16 mounted thereon in superposed relation, said supporting frame comprisingside frame members 7 2 and 73, shown herein'ofang-le iron construction and triangular form andheld in spaced relation by front and rear cross members 17 at the bottom corners. (one only being shown in Fig. 3) and one or. more cross memberslS at an elevated position, said-members be ng located so that they will not interfere with thereelsor theribbon or belt as itistransferred to and from the reels. The said frame like ends forthe reels with a minimum of material and weight. Each disc 23 has a circular ing of the ribbon or belt .by thechi-p board or body element 11 and the longitudinal curvature thereof in winding, the portions of.

the belt between the supported edges afford ample support for the rubber and are reinforced against sagging and possiblecontact with the. layerrof rubber thereunder.

A pair ofsupporting wheels 27 are socured toflthe rear end of the frameof the device and a pair of casters 28 atthe front, a

handle 29 also being provided at the front of the frame for pulling the apparatus around from place to place. I

The reels 15 and.16 may be operated in any convenient manner to wind and unwind the ribbon or belt and to this end the shaft 22 of the lower reel 16 upon which the ribbon or belt with the rubberor other material thereon is preferably wound, may be eX- tended as shown at the left of Fig. 3 to receive a. connection for rotating the lower reel in the loading operation. After the device isloaded with the rubber or other material it is transferred tothe place of use and in the case of calendered rubber compound it is usually desirable that the operator control the operation of the reels so. that he can unwindthe ribbon and rubber from the lowerreel ashe requires it'for use.

For conveniently accomplishing this control of the unwindingoperation a constantly driven shaft 30 is mounted above and adj acent the positionof use. of therubber from the device in hangers-31, one of these being substantially in line with one of the ends of the upper reel when the winding apparatus is in the position where the operator uses the rubber. This hanger 31 has a frame 82 pivoted thereon so as to swing about the axis of the shaft and has a pair of arms 33 at one side of theshaft carrying a short shaft 34 at the outer end with a wideface pulley 35 thereon and operated through the belt 36 and pulleys 37 andz38 from the shaft 30 in the direction-indicated by the arrow in. Fig. 4, said pulley 35 being located above the position of one of the ends of the upper reel 15 so that thelatter may be operated by the. pulley 35 by engaging the latter .withthe rim 25 of the reel end. The swinging frame 32 has an ar1n3 9 at the opposite side of the shaft 30 with a counterweight 4O thereon for normally holding the opposite end of the cord 42, attached to the end of the arm 39 and extending over the sheave 43, is located within convenient reach of the operator so that by pulling on thecord 42 he may tilt the frame 32 to engage the constantly driven pulley 35 with the rim of the upper reel and operate the latter as desired to wind the ribbon or belt thereon and thus unwind same from the lowerreel.

A modified form of unwinding device is shown in Fig. 8 wherein a lever 44 is pivoted on one end of the upper shaft 21 and has a ratchet pawl 45 engaging with a ratchet wheel 46 on the shaft 21. This lever 44 works between stops 47 and 48 and is held in the rearward position against the stop 47 by the weight 49 which is enclosed in a tube 50 and connected with the lever 44 by the cord 51 which extends over the sheave 52. A cord 53 is also connected with the lever-44 and extendsover the sheave 54 to a position within convenient reach of the operator who may thus operate the upper reel 15 to wind the ribbon or belt thereon through the ratchet 46 and pawl'45 construction. c 1' r To prevent overthrow of the reels in the winding and unwinding operations, one of the triangular side members of the main frame is provided with upper and lower braking devices 55 and 56 which co-operate with circular braking surface'57 on the adjoining end disc 23 of the respective reel. These braking devices, which may be of any suitable construction, arealike in'the illustrated structure each having a housing'58 on the machine frame with a brake shoe 59 held against turning movement therein and slidable' in the housing to and from the braking surface 57 of the respective disc 23. A threaded shaft 60 has the outer end secured to a bracket member 61 on the main frame and has the inner end seated in a socket 62 of the brake shoe and the latter has an enlarged seat 63 around the shaft for the inner end of the spring 64 which has the outer end engaged by the hub of the hand wheel'65'which is threaded on the shaft 60 and adapted to regulate the ten-' sion of thespring 64 and the resulting frictional engagement of the brake block 59 with the respective reel disc 23.

In using this apparatus it is desirable to hold it in the locations for winding the rubber thereon and unwinding the rubber therefrom and for this purpose a screw 66 with hand wheel 67 has a threaded engagement with the frame member 17 and the lower reduced end 68 is slidingly engaged through an aperture in the brace 69' so as to be engaged with and withdrawn from the floor for holding the portable frame in a stationary position. I

In using this device, assuming that it is located and locked by the screw 66 in po ender the reel 16 is rotated at the proper rate of speed to wind the rubber 71 thereon and at the same time the ribbon 7 O is unwound from the upper reel and wound on the lower reel 16 between successive layers of the rubber.

When the ribbon 70 has been entirely or almost entirely wound on the lower reel 16, the rubber strip 71 is out, after which the winding device is moved to and locked by the screw 66 in the position where the rubber is to be used and with the rim 25 of the upper reel directly under the pulley 35, The cord 42 is then pulled and held downwardly to engage the pulley 35 with the rim 25 of the upper reel and the latter rotated to feed the rubber from the lower reel as required and'at the same time wind the ribbon 70 back on the upper reel and when the rubber is all removed from the lower reel the ribbon has been transferred to the upper reel and the device is ready to receive another loading of rubber from the calender.

While I have shown and described my invention in a preferred form, I am aware 1 that various changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the principles of my invention, the scope of which is to be determined by the appended claims.

I claim as my invention: V 1. A liner for removably supporting and separating the convolutions of a roll of uncured sheet rubber, said liner comprising a stiffening layer of bendable fibrous sheet material and a layer of fabric secured together in the form of a laminated ribbonand said ribbon being provided along the edges with means whereby successive windings of the ribbon are spaced apart a predetermined distance to accommodate the sheet rubber between.

. RAY R. HUNT. 

